We can’t blame the children for not telling us. They are powerless in every sphere. It was not that long ago when children were cautioned not to speak unless spoken to. Children don’t vote, to quote many a child advocate. To be sure, there are dedicated organizations . . . and individuals who push hard for children’s rights, but the US has a history of granting “rights” to adults at the expense of children.

For the first time in my life, I am breaking down walls. i have become so good at blocking the past. When you’re 3 years old, along with 3 older brothers, placed in that kind of environment, you tend to think that you’re unlovable, that God hates you, that you did something so wrong to have to be here. At first, I would cry and cry and ask why God, why do you hate me so much? Not one day went by that I didn’t get down on my knees and pray and plead and beg God to let me be “released.”

—Ronnie Williams Romero, abuse survivor of Cal Farley's Boys Ranch

I had to make a decision between God and my kids, and I knew . . . that if I chose my kids, I didn’t have a prayer. But I didn’t care anymore. So we lost everything in one day.

—Sara Poisson, mother who left the Jehovah’s Witnesses as the only way to protect her children from her abusive husband

This is what it means to be subjected to the force of faith unleashed by a clergy predator. It is not only physically, psychologically, and emotionally devastating, but it is also spiritually annihilating. It is soul-murder.

—Christa Brown

There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.